Monument record TQ 85 SW 346 - Kentish Gun Belt Single Gun (Diver) Battery (Kingswood)

Site of a single gun (Diver) light anti aircraft emplacement and searchlight emplacement at Kingswood. This was armed with a 40mm gun, which was moved to an extant searchlight emplacement between 24th-26th June 1944, as part of the fourth deployment of 210 guns to the Kentish Gun Belt. It was manned by 4th Light Anti Aircraft Regiment of 27 Brigade, and by 346 Searchlight Battery of 36 Searchlight Regiment..(1)

Description from record TQ 85 SW 360:
The site of a Second World War searchlight battery, this was known as searchlight battery no. BH02 127 located at Broomfield and Kingswood at TQ 833516. It was manned by 302 Searchlight Regiment RA whose Battery Headquarters were located at Loos Barracks, Staplehurst. It was operational by September 1941. (1)

Searchlight sites typically comprised a small ring-ditch to provide the crew with shelter during an air raid, a predictor emplacement for calculating the height and range of targets, a light anti-aircraft machine gun pit, a generator and hutted accommodation for the crew. During the Second World War searchlights were manned by the Royal Artillery and were under the control of the Army's Anti-Aircraft Command. (2)

<1> Dobinson, C., Operation Diver : England's Defence Against the Flying Bomb, June 1944-March 1945 (Monograph). SWX23707.

<2> Lowry (ed), 1995, 20th century defences in Britain : an introductory guide (Bibliographic reference). SKE56150.

<3> CBA Twentieth Century Fortifications in England Supporting paper AA/1 Searchlight Sites in WWII A sample List (Bibliographic reference). SKE15307.